


A Second Chance (We All Deserve That)

by flipflop_diva



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Post-Iron Man 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 01:06:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1570313
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flipflop_diva/pseuds/flipflop_diva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An AU fic set post-Iron Man 3 where Maya lives and Pepper wants to offer her a chance at redemption.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Second Chance (We All Deserve That)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [APgeeksout](https://archiveofourown.org/users/APgeeksout/gifts).



“Pepper.” A hand on your shoulder. Gentle. Soft. “Maya’s awake. She’s … she’s asking to see you.”

You turn your head, and he smiles at you. Not his normal smile. Not his cocky smile. Not his playful smile. A sad smile to go with sad eyes.

“You don’t have to,” he says, but you are already getting to your feet.

“Yes, I do,” you say. “She tried to save your life.”

His smile vanishes. “She only had to save my life because she tried to end it. She tried to end _your_ life. You owe her nothing.”

“Everyone deserves a second chance.”

“Maybe they don’t.”

You are standing by now. You move closer to him and put a hand on his arm. You let your fingers graze his flesh.

“You don’t mean that,” you say. “You know more than anyone how easy it is to get wrapped up in your passions, how easy it is to make one mistake and end up somewhere you didn’t mean to be.”

“Don’t compare me to her,” he starts, and there is a sharpness to his tone.

“I’m not,” you say quickly, and you are careful not to raise your voice. “I’m just saying that maybe she is not all bad. Maybe there is still good in her.”

He looks at you, unmoving, for a moment, and then he shakes his head, laughs softly. “You always see the best in everyone. I don’t know how I ever got so lucky to get someone as amazing as you.”

You laugh and lean up on your toes to kiss him square on the mouth. 

“Neither do I,” you whisper.

•••

She is awake when you enter, but she looks exhausted. She also looks probably exactly how she feels. Like she has been through a war and has only just come out the other side. IVs are flowing into her arms and she is attached to every kind of machine you can imagine. 

But she manages a smile when you enter. A sad smile. The second one of those you have seen in ten minutes.

“Hi,” you whisper, although you don’t know why. There is no need to be quiet, but you feel you have to be.

“You came,” she says. Her voice is soft, too, but not because she is whispering, just from lack of use. It has been almost three months. 

“Yes, I did,” you say.

“Why?”

You shrug. “I’m not sure.” You know what you told Tony, but at the moment, you aren’t really sure if that is even the truth anymore.

She nods, as if this is as good as an answer as she was expecting.

“I’m sorry,” she finally says.

You almost want to say “You should be,” but you manage to keep it in check. Instead you say, “I’d tell you it’s not your fault, but I don’t think that would be the truth.”

“No,” she says. “It wouldn’t be.”

“Why?” you say, and suddenly you know why you have come. Because for as much as you tell Tony every morning that you are fine, and for as much as you go into the office and do your job and come home and trace your fingers down his chest that no longer has a machine built into it and for as much as you go to bed and comfort yourself in the feel of his arms around you and the feel of his body merged into yours, you know that you are lying to yourself. You are not fine. You have nightmares and you see things that aren’t there and you worry about a future that is dark and dreary and one where you are all alone.

But more than that, sometimes you can still feel _it_. The pain, the never-ending pain, that made your body feel like it was on fire and burning from within. You can still taste the bitter smoke on your tongue, can still see your skin changing as you watch.

And sometimes, a lot of times, if you are honest, you can feel it — that spark, inside you, recharging you.

It’s still there, you know it is. Tony says it’s gone, that the doctors got it all, but you know better. You know it’s still there because you can feel it.

And you want to know why. Why this happened, why they chose you, why they let it get this far.

You spend your life around people like Tony and Maria and Natasha and Fury, and Coulson when he was alive, people who are so strongly good and believe in good and in doing the right thing. You aren’t really sure how someone can veer off course so much, even if you told Tony you understood.

“Why?” you say again, because she hasn’t answered you and you know now you really, really need to know.

But she doesn’t — or she can’t — give you what you want. She shrugs, and then she winces, as if the movement hurt her. It probably did.

“I don’t know,” she says.

“You have to know,” you say. “You told me you once wanted to change the world. I don’t believe you weren’t telling me the truth.”

She purses her lips. Finally, she nods. 

“I meant what I said that day,” she says, then she smiles almost wryly. “Most of it anyway.”

“So you wanted to change the world,” you say.

“I wanted to change the world,” she repeats, and then she closes her eyes. She is so still and so silent for so long you begin to wonder if she maybe fell asleep. But then she speaks. “I think I just met the wrong person,” she says. 

“Yes,” you say and your mind flashes back. That charming smile, the touch of his skin as he showed you his brain, the way he took your breath away. 

You look at Maya, carefully look at her, lying there with her eyes closed, pale and sickly, and you think about her life, about the passion and the ideals she once had and the charming man who must have promised her he could make her dreams come true.

You could understand that. You wish there was a better explanation, but you can understand that.

You move closer to her and take her hand. Her eyes creak open.

“What are you doing,” she says.

“Giving you a second chance,” you say, and you smile to show you mean it. Because in that moment, you do.


End file.
